I just finished up my first week of teaching, and with one week down, I’m not ready to throw in the towel just yet. :) I really enjoyed teaching my English 100 tutorial classes–three on Thursday and one on Friday. On the first day, we were to give our students a small in-class writing assignment. Each of the GAs picked a slightly different topic from any of the others, I think. My topic was perhaps the “bravest” of them: I asked the students, “When you looked at your schedule and saw En 100, you thought ___________________.” Then I asked them to broaden their scope to include their reaction to English in general. (Feel free to leave your own answer to my question in a comment below. :) Needless to say, the range of responses was rather broad.

One thing I learned from teaching the first week is just how much energy 50 minutes of class requires. People had told me how much energy it took, but the necessity of consciously ramping up my energy was a new experience for me. I enjoyed it, though, most of all when the students asked questions or looked interested. It takes energy to be an active learner too; some of my classes were higher in energy than others.

My other responsibility as an English GA is to assist in a lecture class. I enjoy that too, although juggling 160 copies of three different handouts in three stacks each can be a little adventuresome. Thankfully, the three-handout day was just the first day; hopefully it will be only one or two handouts from now on. After all the handing out is done, I get to stand in the back of the classroom and watch. So far my section hasn’t had any problems, for which I’m very glad. :)

So, that’s my first dose of teaching. As the semester progresses, and I start grading papers, I might adjust my opinion (probably not).